Research > Political Communication

My work in political communication includes research on the tone and emotionality of news, media coverage of the economy and public policy, the impact of news and photos on political preferences, polarization and politicization in media, and news coverage of political campaigns. Published research is listed (beginning with the most recent) below.

• Sol Hart, Dan Hiaeshutter-Rice and Stuart Soroka. N.d. “Go Negative for Clicks: Negative Sentiment in Environmental Advocacy Emails is Associated with Increased Public Engagement,” Environmental Communication.

• Mia Carbone, Stuart Soroka and Johanna Dunaway. N.d. “The Psychophysiology of News Avoidance: Does Negative Affect Drive both Attention and Inattention to News?,” Journalism Studies. [direct link to paper]

• Dan Hiaeshutter-Rice,  Guadalupe Madrigal,  Gavin Ploger,  Sydney Carr, Mia Carbone,  Ava Francesca Battocchio,  and Stuart Soroka. 2024. “Identity Driven Information Ecosystems,” Communication Theory 34(2): 82–91

• Matea Mustafaj, Stuart Soroka and Jan Van den Bulck. N.d. “Sleep, Media Use and Sociopolitical Attitudes,” Journal of Media Psychology.

• Christopher Wlezien and Stuart Soroka. N.d., “Media Reflect! Policy, the Public, and the News,” American Political Science Review.

• Dan Hiaeshutter-Rice, Fabian Neuner and Stuart Soroka. 2023. “Cued by Culture: Political Imagery and Partisan Evaluations.” Political Behavior 45: 741-759.

• Stuart Soroka and Christopher Wlezien. 2022. Information and Democracy: Public Policy in the News, Cambridge University Press.

• Amanda Lotz, Oliver Eklund and Stuart Soroka. 2022. “Netflix, library analysis, and globalization: rethinking mass media flows.” Journal of Communication 72(4): 511-521.

• Sarah Bachleda Fioroni, Amanda D. Lotz, Stuart Soroka and Dan Hiaeshutter-Rice. 2022. “Political Sorting in U.S. Entertainment Media.” Popular Communication 20(2): 117-132.

• Stuart Soroka and Yanna Krupnikov, 2021. The Increasing Viability of Good News, Cambridge Elements in Politics and Communication, Cambridge University Press.

• Sarah Bachleda (Fioroni) and Stuart Soroka. 2021. “Emotion” in The Psychology of Journalism, Sharon Coen and Peter Bull, eds., Oxford University Press.

• Guadalupe Madrigal and Stuart Soroka. 2023. “Migrants, Caravans, and the Impact of News Photos on Immigration Attitudes,” The International Journal of Press/Politics 28(1).

• Stuart Soroka, Lauren Guggenheim and Dominic Valentino. 2021. “Valence-Based Biases in News Selection,” currently online in the Journal of Media Psychology 33(3): 145-154. [direct link to an ungated pdf here]

• Johanna Dunaway and Stuart Soroka. 2021. “Smartphone-size screens constrain cognitive access to video news stories,” Information, Communication and Society 24(1): 69-84.

• Dan Hiaeshutter-Rice, Stuart Soroka and Christopher Wlezien. 2021. “Freedom of the Press and Public Responsiveness,” Perspectives on Politics 19(2): 479-491.

• Sol Hart, Sedona Chinn and Stuart Soroka. 2020. “Politicization and Polarization in COVID-19 News Coverage.” Science Communication.

• Patrick Kraft, Yanna Krupnikov, Kerri Milita, John Ryan and Stuart Soroka. 2020. “Social Media and the Changing Information Environment: Sentiment Differences in Read versus Re-Circulated News Content,” Public Opinion Quarterly 84(S1): 195–215.

• Sarah Bachleda, Fabian Neuner, Stuart Soroka, Lauren Guggenheim, Patrick Fournier and Elin Naurin. 2020. “Individual-level differences in negativity biases in news selection.” Personality and Individual Differences: 109675.

• Leticia Bode, Ceren Budak, Jonathan M. Ladd, Frank Newport, Josh Pasek, Lisa O. Singh, Stuart Soroka and Michael W. Traugott. 2020. Words that Matter: How the News and Social Media Shaped the 2016 Presidential Campaign, Brookings.

• Sedona Chinn, Sol Hart and Stuart Soroka. 2020. “Politicization and Polarization in Climate Change News Content, 1985-2017,” Science Communication 42(1): 12-129.

• Stuart Soroka, Patrick Fournier, and Lilach Nir. 2019. “Cross-national evidence of a negativity bias in psychophysiological reactions to news,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 116 (38) 18888-18892.

• Fabian Neuner, Stuart Soroka and Christopher Wlezien. 2019. “Mass Media as a Source of Public Responsiveness,” International Journal of Press/Politics 24(3): 269-292.

• Stuart Soroka, Patrick Fournier, Lilach Nir and John Hibbing. 2019. “Psychophysiology in the Study of Political Communication: An Expository Study of Individual-Level Variation in Negativity Biases,” Political Communication 26(2): 288-302 .

• PJ Lamberson and Stuart Soroka. 2018. “A Model of Attentiveness to Outlying News,” Journal of Communication 68(5): 942-964.

• Christopher Wlezien and Stuart Soroka. 2019. “Mass Media and Electoral Preferences during the 2016 Presidential Election,” Political Behavior 41: 945–970.

• Stuart Soroka and Christopher Wlezien. 2019. “Tracking the Coverage of Public Policy in Mass Media,” Policy Studies Journal 47(2): 471-491.

• Stuart Soroka, Mark Daku, Dan Hiaeshutter-Rice, Lauren Guggenheim and Josh Pasek. 2017. “Negativity and Positivity Biases in Economic News Coverage: Traditional Versus Social Media.” Communication Research 45(7): 1078-1098.

• Christopher Wlezien, Stuart Soroka and Dominik Stecula. 2017. “A Cross-National Analysis of the Causes and Consequences of Economic News,” Social Science Quarterly 98(3): 1010-1025.

• Eran Amsalem, Tamir Sheafer, Stefaan Walgrave, Peter John Loewen and Stuart Soroka. 2017. “Media Motivation and Elite Rhetoric in Comparative Perspective,” Political Communication 34(3): 385-403.

• Stuart Soroka, Peter Loewen, Patrick Founier and Daniel Rubenson. 2016. “The Impact of News Photos on Support for Military Action,” Political Communication 33(4): 563-582.

• Stuart Soroka. 2016. “Gatekeeping and the Negativity Bias.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics (online here).

• Stuart Soroka, Elisabeth Gidengil, Patrick Fournier and Lilach Nir. 2016. “Do Women and Men Respond Differently to Negative News?” Politics & Gender 12(2): 344-368.

• JungHwan Yang, Hernando Rojas, et al. 2016. Why are ‘others’ so polarized? Perceived political polarization and media use in 10 countries.a Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (21(5): 349-367.

• Stuart Soroka, Dominik Stecula and Christopher Wlezien. 2015. “It’s (Change in) the (Future) Economy, Stupid: Economic Indicators, the Media, and Public Opinion,” American Journal of Political Science, 59(2): 457-474.

• Stuart Soroka and Stephen McAdams. 2015. “News, Politics and Negativity,” Political Communication 32: 1-22.

• Stuart Soroka, Lori Young and Meital Balmas. 2015. “Bad News or Mad News? Sentiment Scoring of Negativity, Fear, and Anger in News Content,” AAPSS, 659(1): 108-121.

• Stuart Soroka, 2014. Negativity in Democratic Politics: Causes and Consequences. Cambridge Studies in Public Opinion and Political Psychology, Cambridge University Press.

• Marc Trussler and Stuart Soroka. 2014. “Consumer Demand for Cynical and Negative News Frames,” International Journal of Press and Politics 19(3): 360-379.

• James Curran, Sharon Coen, Stuart Soroka et al. 2014. “Reconsidering ‘Virtuous Circle’ and ‘Media Malaise’ Theories of the Media: An 11-Nation Study,” Journalism 15(7): 815-833.

• Andrea Lawlor, Adam Mahon and Stuart Soroka. 2014. “The Mass Media and Welfare Policy Framing: A Study in Policy Definition,” in Political Communication in Canada, Alex Marland, Thierry Giasson and Tamara Small, eds., Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

• Rodney Tiffen, Paul K. Jones, David Rowe et al. 2013. “Sources in the News: A Comparative Study” Journalism Studies 15(4): 374-391.

• Stuart Soroka. 2014. “Reliability and Validity in Automated Content Analysis,” in Communication and Language Analysis in the Corporate World, Roderick P. Hart, ed., Hershey PA: CGI Global.

• Stuart Soroka, Olga Redko and Quinn Albaugh. 2013. “Television in the Legislature: The Impact of Cameras in the House of Commons,” Parliamentary Affairs.

• Stuart Soroka, Blake Andrew, Toril Aalberg, Shanto Iyengar, James Curran et al. 2013. “Auntie Knows Best? Public Broadcasters and Current Affairs Knowledge,” British Journal of Political Science 43(4): 719-739.

• Penelope Diagnault, Stuart Soroka and Thierry Giasson. 2013. “The Perception of Political Advertising During An Election Campaign: A Preliminary Study of Cognitive and Emotional Effects,” Canadian Journal of Communication 28: 167-186.

• Toril Aalberg, Stylianos Papathanassopoulos, Stuart Soroka, James Curran, Kaori Hayashi, Shanto Iyengar, Paul K. Jones, Gianpietro Mazzoleni, Hernando Rojas, David Rowe, and Rodney Tiffen. 2013. “International TV News, Foreign Affairs Interest and Public Knowledge. A comparative study of foreign news coverage and public opinion in 11 countries.” Journalism Studies 14(3).

• Stuart Soroka. 2012. “The Gatekeeping Function: Distributions of Information in Media and the Real World,” The Journal of Politics 74(2); 514-528.

• Lori Young and Stuart Soroka. 2012. “Affective News: The Automated Coding of Sentiment in Political Texts“, Political Communication 29: 205-231.

• Eric Belanger and Stuart Soroka. 2012. “Campaigns and the Prediction of Election Outcomes: Can Historical and Campaign-Period Prediction Models Be Combined?” Electoral Studies 31: 702-714.

• Stuart Soroka, Stephen Farnsworth, Lori Young and Andrea Lawlor. 2012. “Event-Driven Environmental News in the US and Canada,” Electronic Media and Politics 1(10): 143-157.

• Stuart Soroka, Andrea Lawlor, Stephen Farnsworth and Lori Young. 2012. “Mass Media and Policymaking,” Chapter 16 in the Routledge Handbook of Public Policy, Eduardo Araral, Scott Fritzen, Michael Howlett, M. Ramesh and Xun Wu, eds.

• Stephen Farnsworth, Stuart Soroka and Lori Young. 2010. “The International Two-Step Flow in Foreign News: Canadian and US Television News Coverage of Foreign Affairs,” International Journal of Press and Politics 15(4): 401-419.

• Stuart Soroka, Marc Andre Bodet, Lori Young and Blake Andrew. 2009. “Campaign News and Vote Intentions,” Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties 19(4): 359-376.

• Stuart Soroka and Blake Andrew. 2009. “Media Coverage of Canadian Elections: Horse-Race Coverage and Negativity in Election Campaigns,” in Linda Trimble and Shanon Sampert, eds., Mediating Canadian Politics. Pearson: 113-228.

• Stefaan Walgrave, Michiel Nuytemans and Stuart Soroka. 2008. “The Mass Media’s Political Agenda-Setting Power: A Longitudinal Analysis of Media, Parliament and Government in Belgium (1993-2000)”, Comparative Political Studies.

• Stuart Soroka. 2007. “Agenda-setting and Issue Definition,” in Michael Orsini and Miriam Smith, eds., Critical Policy Studies. University of British Columbia Press.

• Stuart Soroka. 2006. “Good News and Bad News: Asymmetric Responses to Economic Information,” in The Journal of Politics 68(2): 372-385.

• Stuart Soroka and Maialene Boutin-Wilkins. 2006. “La couverture médiatique des réalisations du gouvernement Charest,” in François Pétry, Éric Bélanger, and Louis M. Imbeau, eds., Le Parti libéral: enquête sur les réalisations du gouvernement Charest. Québec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval.

• Stuart Soroka and Elvin Lim. 2003. “Issue Definition and the Opinion-Policy Link: Public Preferences and Health Care Spending in the US and UK,” British Journal of Politics and International Relations 5(4): 576-93.

• Stuart Soroka. 2003. “Media, Public Opinion and Foreign Policy,” Harvard International Journal of Press and Politics 8(1): 27-48. Also reprinted in Philip Seib, ed, Political Communication, Sage Benchmarks in Communications, London: Sage.

• Stuart Soroka. 2002. “Issue Attributes and Agenda-Setting: Media, the Public, and Policymakers in Canada,” International Journal of Public Opinion Research 14(3): 264-85.

• Stuart Soroka. 2002. Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada. University of British Columbia Press.

• Stuart Soroka. 2000. “Schindler’s List’s Intermedia Influence: Exploring the Role of ‘Entertainment’ in Media Agenda-Setting,” Canadian Journal of Communication 25(2): 211-30.